Didn't people say similar stuff about IBM in the 90's? they are still humongous and make TONS of money

Agreed that MS will be around for a long long time. They make too much money not to be, but Microsoft as we know it may die off.

Meaning, Microsoft is still a serious contender in areas like cloud computing with Azure and software development with C#, .NET, and Visual Studio (to name a few) so they won't be "dying" (i.e. Bankruptcy) anytime soon. They made fade into the background like IBM has though. Not many people ever see anything IBM anymore so to the average person IBM is gone. If Microsoft ends up losing the desktop and mobile (not debating the merits of that here) and solidifying on the backend then they will have died to most people. I feel that is the death the author is referring to.

Sorry, mixed you up with someone else. .. I've had 4 hours sleep in the past 3 days due to all the Windows 8 machines I've had to wipe and reload with Windows 7 for all my clients x-mas gifts.

hehe, sleep deprivation does some crazy things to the brain, out of the blue and for no apparent reason a few months back, my brain would not sleep for 4 full days and nights, I started going crazy and past the point of being tired

It is virtually impossible for Windows 8 OS to be a failure. the MS Tablet and Windows Phone programs may be, with consumers. Time will tell.

I personally want both to succeed. I actually hate Google, Android, & Linux. But what I've seen so far, is worrisome. I really don't think there's enough Vision and leadership at MS to pull it off. The fact that I have Surface, Lumia 920, and Windows 8 Desktop and they all barely interoperate, tells me they ain't near ready. Fortunately for them the competition is small and hasn't done much in the Tablet space. Phones, that will be tougher.

I wouldn't start placing bets till after Christmas.

The fact that I have Windows 8 Desktop and Start Screen and the two barely interoperate, tells me they ain't near ready. This is the first version of Windows in which I have felt the UI was a step backwards from its predecessor.

Sorry, mixed you up with Dot Matrix . .. I've had 4 hours sleep in the past 3 days due to all the Windows 8 machines I've had to wipe and reload with Windows 7 for all my clients x-mas gifts.

This makes no sense. For starters why would they install win8 and then hire someone to remove it, or second why would they buy a windows 8 pc and downgrade it to something with a useless archaic startmenu. I call BS on this obvious troll attempt.